title: Automated microsystem for electrochemical detection of cancer markers.
abstract: The development of a fully automated microsystem housing an amperometric immunosensor is presented. The microfluidic cell integrates reagent storage and electrochemical immunodetection and was applied for the detection of breast cancer markers. The main advantage of this system is that no external fluidic storage is required and the instrumental setup is thus greatly simplified. The fluidics of the microsystem is computer controlled and requires minimal end-user intervention. The analytical performance of the device was compared with a manually driven system and applied for the amperometric detection of the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3). This automation methodology greatly improves the analytical performance of the immunosensor in terms of accuracy and reproducibility as evidenced by a reduction of LOD observed for CEA and CA15-3 with respect to a manually driven system. Finally, the automated microsystem was applied for the analysis of real patient serum samples, demonstrating excellent correlation with a commercial ELISA.
authors.affiliation: Nanobiotechnology and Bioanalysis Group, Departament d'Enginyeria Quimica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kellner
authors.forename: Mary Luz
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Botero
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Latta
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Drese
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fragoso
authors.forename: Ciara K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D018396:Mucin-1